Al Gore says the internet isn’t as powerful as TV. He says the goal is to drive content from the internet to TV. That’s what my West Virginia father would call bassackwards. YouTube serves 100 million videos a day. I dare say that Current on cable doesn’t have nearly its audience — it reaches 20 million homes but only a tiny fraction of those watch, as with any of so many cable channels, but it is because of his cable deals that he doesn’t put his “best” content online. Also, Current is not nearly so open to the creations and voices of the citizens as YouTube and the internet as a whole. LATER: I wasn’t being clear above. I think it is a fine and proper ambition to make TV more porous, as a BBC exec said, bringing the voices of the people onto the big screen. But big, old TV is by no means the only game in town and the real goal is to break down the barriers so people need not care where or when they watch (or create) something, so long as they do it.
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